Dominik, you currently are an elite member as you said. You have a certain amount of elite points. You can see your elite points on elite page. You can use these points to buy stuff as 100 points = 0.50 $ I remember. (If I am wrong, can Lyle or someone correct me here?). The procedure to convert your points into spendable voucher is: You add stuff to cart, at checkout, you have an option below that allows getting a coupon for exchange of elite points. Decide what amount you want to redeem, then click generate coupon and you get a code. Say you used 400 points to generate a 2$ coupon. Now when you put the code in order (there is an area for this) it will decrease the price of whatever you are buying by 2$. If you are buying a download from the wire worth 2$, your download with become free.
This doesn't affect your lifetime member points. Those are total number of poits you have ever earned. If you say earn 700 points and spent 200, you will still have 500 to spend and 700 as your lifetime points. Once you have earned 10,000 lifetime points you will become a permanent elite member with a steel card, constant discounts and offers etc.
You can EARN these points the way elite page shows.